The latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), details analysis of drug overdose death rates. Some of their findings:

The drug overdose death rate increased significantly from 12.3 per 100,000 population in 2010 to 16.3 in 2015

Death rates increased in 30 states and DC and remained stable in 19 states

During 2015, a total of 52,404 persons in the United States died from a drug overdose, an increase from 47,055 in 2014

Among these deaths, 33,091 (63.1%) involved an opioid, an increase from 28,647 in 2014

The age-adjusted opioid-involved death rate increased by 15.6%, from 9.0 per 100,000 in 2014 to 10.4 in 2015, driven largely by increases in deaths involving heroin and synthetic opioids other than methadone

Death rates for natural/semisynthetic opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids other than methadone increased by 2.6%, 20.6%, and 72.2%, respectively; illicit opioids significantly contributed to the increase